


At The End of All Things

by Madame Baroquedile (WhimsicalRealist)



Series: Strings Of Fate Set In Sandstone [8]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-25
Updated: 2014-08-25
Packaged: 2018-02-14 15:45:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2197479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhimsicalRealist/pseuds/Madame%20Baroquedile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Wheel of Fate slows to a stop for one universe, only to be reborn in another and begin the cycle anew. But for one defiant god, he will not go quietly...and he will not go alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	At The End of All Things

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the same universe as "Oasis", but much further along...in fact, it's the end of that story. But is it really an ending? Or a new beginning?

Beginnings must lead to endings. This is a universal constant. Even the Old Gods—existing beyond the reach of Death—had come into being and would someday be undone. The plane of the living was in its dying throes, or as most cultures called it: Armageddon. Wars. Disease. Hysteria. Even the very world itself heaved, leveling entire cities with quakes and storms, massive waves and erupting volcanoes.

  
There was nothing to be done, though it was not for lack of trying. The Pantheon of gods had convened at the first spasms and each god had made their suggestions and struck out against the mechanisms of Fate and Inevitability. Nothing had worked. The end marched on. All that was left to them to was to watch.

  
The desert had gone cold, the sand blown by bitter winds and cyclones laid waste to the scattered settlements. All water was gone, the great river having dried up before the winds began, the many oasis draining away one by one. By the time the last mortal soul had been reaped from the kingdom, there remained only one spring, a small puddle of a thing protected by a strong tapestry of magic. 

  
Standing at the shoreline of the spring was Crocodili-Ra, the god of the great river, the king of the desert. But now the crown meant very little, as there were no subjects left to him, no river, and no sun: he was simply Crocodile again. The sky had gone dark some days ago and even the stars had been taken away. Dim golden eyes gazed skyward and he listened to the howling wind outside the sanctuary he maintained. Perhaps he could have brought others to this place, to shield them from the hungry destruction of the End of Days. However, he was a selfish god after so many, many years and he had no purpose for cowering mortals in his oasis. No, there was room there for only one other.

  
"Had a pretty damn good run, didn’t we, Croco-man?"

  
The god brought his gaze back down and the light returned to his eyes immediately. A simple smile pulled up the corners of his lips as he looked to Doflamingo—his cherished seraph—standing before him. He reached out his hand, giving a pleased rumble as the blond took it and gave it a light squeeze.

  
"Mm, we certainly did. A shame that it has to end."

"Ain’t that the truth? I know I wanted to tear it apart for a long time, but I gotta admit: I’m glad that I didn’t."

"Oh? And what could possibly have changed your mind?”

"Tsk, shut up, old man. You know why.”

"Yes, after all this time, I’m confident that I do," Crocodile chuckled, lacing his fingers between the angel’s.

[[Art](http://darksahia.tumblr.com/post/116892518439/well-sorry-for-my-absence-here-is-another) used with the [artist's](http://darksahia.tumblr.com/) permission <3]

 

Glancing down at their hands, it still tugged at his heart fondly to see the rings together in a tangled nest. He reached his thumb to run it reverently over the carved sandstone crocodile on the seraph’s ring finger.

"The Otherworld," the blond muttered, expression falling into a frown. "It’ll be gone, too, won’t it?"

"Yes. All things of this plane, this universe, will cease to be. Some believe it is a true ending. Others hold that is merely paves the way for a rebirth."

"Rebirth, huh? So, what, like a do-over for reality?”

"More or less. A new plane similar and yet unlike our own. Constants, variables. No one can be certain what to expect, only that we will cease to exist as we are now."

"Hm," the seraph looked thoughtful for a moment, grip tightening on Crocodile’s hand. "There’s a chance, then."

"A chance?"

 

The younger being grinned again, looking down at his precious reptile with eyes shining brilliantly. He, too, was a selfish creature and could give less of a damn about anyone else if his own desire could come true.

"Constants. We could be _constants_ , couldn’t we? In this new plane, this do-over…"

"Are you _seriously_ suggesting that we be reborn into a new reality as… _soul-mates_? We have absolutely no control over the new order, Doflamingo. In the blink, there will be nothing left of me or you or anything we knew. There’s nothing we can do.”

"Sure there is. We can believe."

"You are bordering on being disgustingly sappy."

"What, no, I’m  _serious_!” Mingo laughed, heart singing when the older man joined him with that deep tone he so adored. “Belief is strong. Dreams and all that bullshit, didn’t you listen to that shithead, Strawhat? But not just that, the force of Will.”

"Alright, I’ll humor you. What do you suggest?"

”Will it. You’re a _god_ , Crocodile. If any beings in this universe could will themselves into becoming a constant in the new one, it’s you flashy Pantheon bastards.”

  
Outside the oasis, the winds of destruction had grown. No longer a natural fury, it was pure and absolute nothingness that lashed against the barrier the god had built around the last fount. Grimacing, he pushed back at the force to buy just a bit more time, hand firm on Mingo’s.

  
"Soon it won’t matter…but I will try. Tell me what I should do."

The seraph reached out with his free hand and took hold of the god’s shoulder, turning them so they stood face to face. Brows knit together in growing anxiety, he lifted slightly shaking fingers to his reptile’s cheek and offered a smile.

"I can’t do it myself, but you know me. You know the shape of my soul. Keep that in your mind, keep it close to yours. In the last moments, at the end of all things, you hold tight and you tell reality to suck your scaly cock because if we’re born into that other plane, I’ll be damned if I don’t get to be with you for the eternity you promised me. So you owe me this one last trick, got it?"

  
Loud groaning of magic tearing apart as the devouring shadows pried themselves into the last flickering grain of their world could not drown out the sound of the god’s laughter, letting it be muffled only by the press of passionate, desperate lips upon his own. The winds ripped and tore and shredded everything around them, but joined fingers shone with the last gleam of the universe’s magic and it spared the god and his devoted harbinger just long enough to exchange parting words.

  
"I’ll see you on the other side, Sandman," Doflamingo muttered around a strangled noise locked behind a wide grin. "I’ll always find you."

  
"Always," Crocodile agreed, gritting his own teeth into a forced smirk. "Until the end of days."

Nothingness crashed down upon them as their strength gave out, swallowing them hole and rending them from existence. In the very last fragments of consciousness, the god clung to a vision of those shining eyes, that shit-eating grin, and the warmth his soul felt at the sound of his seraph’s laughter. Gathering what was left of himself, he gave a defiant roar into the void and exerted his Will upon the framework of the plane just beginning to reshape itself.

  
Gods save him, he would doom himself to Doflamingo again and again and again across every universe. Because he had promised, hadn’t he? And Crocodile—Crocodili-Ra, the god of Life and King of the Desert—did not allow anything to decide his fate but himself.

 

* * *

  
**_Sixteen years later…_ **

  
"And what the hell do you think you’re doing, brat?” the raven-haired boy growled menacingly.

"H-hey, Sandman!" the blond blurted with a wide, nervous grin. "Nice trick!"

  
The teen raised a brow at this scrappy little shit crouching in an alley and snorted, arms crossing over his chest and tilted his head to one side. Slowly, a smug grin pulled at his lips and he lowered himself to be on eye-level with the younger boy.

  
Something familiar about that smile, wasn’t there? If he didn’t know better, he would have _sworn_ they had met before…

**Author's Note:**

> As this universe closes, it is reborn into another that can be found in "Of Sand and String"


End file.
